Canaletto (Venetian: 1697-1768). See 127.
The interior of the Rotunda in Ranelagh Gardens (at Chelsea), which were opened as a rival to Vauxhall in 1742, and at once became the rage. "Ranelagh has totally beat Vauxhall," wrote Walpole in 1744; "nobody goes anywhere else." "When I first entered Ranelagh," said Dr. Johnson, "it gave me an expansion and gay sensation in my mind such as I never experienced anywhere else." Smollett describes it in his novels as an "enchanted palace." "Ranelagh," said Rogers ("Table-Talk"), "was a very pleasant place of amusement. There persons of inferior rank mingled with the highest nobility of Britain. All was so orderly and still that you could hear the whisking sound of the ladies' trains as the immense assembly walked round and round the room. If you chose, you might have tea, which was served up in the neatest equipage possible." The dining boxes under the arcade on the ground level are shown in the picture, as well as the orchestra, the musicians, and the numerous gaily-dressed promenaders. On the back of the original canvas was an inscription by the artist, recording that the picture was painted in London in 1754.
1430. ARCHITECTURAL SUBJECT WITH FIGURES.
Domenico Beccafumi (Sienese: 1486-1551).
Of this painter there is a very interesting account in Vasari. His surname was adopted from his patron, on whose estate Domenico's father was a labourer. Like Giotto, Domenico was observed one day drawing on the ground, while minding his father's sheep, and his master sent him to school and made an artist of him. His style was first formed on that of Perugino, whose pictures in Siena he copied. In 1510 he went to Rome to study the works of Michael Angelo and Raphael; but returning to Siena in 1512, he became a close imitator of Bazzi (1144), who had recently settled in the city. Unlike Bazzi, Domenico was (adds Vasari) "most orderly and well conducted, lived as it beseemed a Christian to do, and passed the greater part of his time alone." "It will nevertheless sometimes happen," adds Vasari, "that such as are called good fellows and merry companions are more sought after than are the virtuous and upright." In the matter of artistic commissions, however, Beccafumi was well employed, in painting both altar-pieces for churches and frescoes of classical subjects for the houses of wealthy citizens. Some of the latter still remain in situ, while the Accademia contains Beccafumi's best works in the other sort. It was he who executed the mosaics of light and dark marbles which form the pavement of the choir of the Duomo. He also practised sculpture and did eight angels in bronze for the Duomo. He hastened his death, says Vasari, "by labouring day and night at his castings of metal which he would also finish and polish himself, working entirely alone, and refusing to accept any assistance whatever." He occupied his leisure time in cultivating a small property outside the city gates. He could not work, he told Vasari, removed from the air of Siena.
A picture corresponding in general character to several described by Vasari. It is probably intended as a fantastic treatment of the visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon, or of Esther before Ahasuerus.
1431. THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST.
Ascribed to Perugino (Umbrian: 1446-1523). See 288.
Around this little picture of the Umbrian School, bought by Sir Edward Poynter at Rome in 1894, a fierce battle of the critics has raged. Sir Edward's own description may first be cited:—"A perfectly genuine work by a scholar of Perugino, probably done in his studio, and, in my opinion, possibly by the young Raphael. The most characteristic point, besides the beautiful painting of the figure of the Saviour, is the drawing of the hands, which is precisely Raphael's. On the other hand, the heads are not specially Raphaelesque, nor is the colour as pure and transparent as is usual even in his early work; at the same time, such characteristics as do not agree with what we know of his work might possibly be due to its being a youthful performance. The painting of the trees is quite peculiar, and different from the treatment to be found in the works of Perugino, or, indeed, of any work of the school that I had seen. Some two or three years afterwards I saw the predella painting of 'St. John Preaching' by Raphael, belonging to the Marquis of Lansdowne, and was very interested to find in it the same treatment of the leaves of the trees—that is to say, that, instead of the minute and delicate sprays of foliage, so characteristic of Perugino's own work and of, so far as I know, most of his followers, the trees have only a few sprays of large and freely painted leaves." According to many of Sir Edward's critics, the picture is a "detestable little production"; while one of them ascribes it, as a work of the nineteenth century, to Micheli, "a maker of old masters." (See a copious correspondence in the Athenæum and the Times, during March and April, 1907).